STEPHEN WILLIAM HAWKING

STEPHEN HAWKING

Believed by many to be one of the most brilliant minds ever, Stephen Hawking, CH (Companion of Honour), CBE (Companion of the British Empire), KBE (Knight of the British Empire), FRS(Fellow of the Royal Society), FRSA(Fellow of Royal Society for Arts) was born in 1942, in Oxford, (quite coincidentally) 3 centuries after Galileo Galilei. He studied Physics at Oxford and graduated from Cambridge.

Stephen, aged 12

In his early twenties, unfortunately, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, known in the United Kingdom as Lou Grehig's Disease.His studies, being largely theoretical (since he studies only theoretical physics) were not affected by the dreadful illness. Then began his cycle of slow disintegration which crippled him to sit in a wheelchair and later removed his ability to speak, too.

He is considered by the scientific community worldwide to be one of the greatest minds since Einstein and holds his chair at Cambridge, succeeding Dr. PAM Dirac ( Laucasian Professor for Mathematics). His respect in the scientific community stems from his over brilliant mind and seemingly paralyzing disease he has been afflicted with for decades.

He is known for doing plethoric amount of research on black holes. He is deeply intrigued by the Origin of the Universe, as according to him it alone explains the presence of a Creator. The various models of its origin keep various limits as to when he would have intervened in the creation.

In 1985, he was diagnosed with pneumonia. The tracheostomy operation also removed his ability to speak. It was at that time that he completed the first draft of A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. He somehow completed the book that ripped apart bestseller charts in the UK.

However now he is helped by a Communications programme ‘Living Center’ which was donated by Word Plus Inc. based in Sunnyvale, California. A speech synthesizer from Speech Plus California (also based in Sunnyvale California) and a personal computer were mounted onto his wheelchair by one person David Mason.

Carl Sagan, in the introduction to Hawking’s celebrated bestseller A Brief History of Time vividly recalls Hawking’s investigature  into the Royal Society –

‘A man in a wheelchair was signing his name on a book that had on its earliest pages the name of Newton. As he finished, there was applause from the audience. Stephen Hawking was a legend even then.’

Peter Higgs and Stephen Hawking. Foreground shows the LHC, artist's impression 

According to him, life for him is a claustrophobic room whose walls are narrowing day by day. Any love, care, recognition you get from those outside have little effect. For him, the end is just sitting at the door.

His disease of the motor neuron means that his body slowly disintegrates every moment and any moment can be his last. Although it was decades ago, but one doesn’t know when this legend may pass away silently.

Well, let’s wish the very best to the man who taught us so much that contemplating all of it would cost many of us our lifetimes!!!